As a Level One trauma center, University Hospital in Syracuse is ready for anything.

Well, almost anything.

It took a little prep work before the emergency room was ready for a potential visit from Vice President Joe Biden.

Technically, it was ready. Surgeons, radiologists and cardiologists are there 24-7, said Maryann Fields, who manages the hospital's emergency room and helicopter program. They sleep at the hospital in case they're needed.

"We do this every day. We save gunshot wounds, stabbings, motorcycle accident victims. We know how to do this," Fields said. But knowing the vice president could end up in her ER adds something.

For starters, they had to be ready to accommodate eight Secret Service officers in the operating room.

That's far more than the one police officer who accompanies patients who've been arrested.

Fields had to have eight sterile "bunnysuits" at the ready for secret service agents to slip over their clothes in a moment's notice. The suits would cover them from collar to ankle.

Fields had three in-person meetings to prepare: two with Secret Service officers, and one with the White House medical staff. They needed to know about the security. And they needed to know that University Hospital actually has the doctors it says it does in order to qualify as a Level One Trauma Center.

There was an aura of mystery to the vice president's visit.

Fields made sure the Secret Service knew they couldn't land their Black Hawk helicopter on the hospital's landing pad. The military helicopters are too heavy.

They told her that problem was taken care of. How? She doesn't know.

And to the question of whether there were Secret Service agents in her ER Saturday? She was told to give a more philosophical answer: "Their presence was very close during his stay," Fields said.

But there is one thing she does know: the security at University's Emergency Room, equipped with metal detectors and used to dealing with victims of violent crimes, stood the Secret Service's muster without any tweaks.

None of the security was changed Sunday. "If the Secret Service is OK with our security system, then it's pretty good."